- Hello and thank you for finding the time for this interview. So, the first question - how do you feel yourselves now?

   Vince: Well, we're a bit knackered, 'cause we went out drinking last night, we were drinking too much Russian vodka. We stayed in drinking. We stayed in drinking Russian vodka so we're slighly worn out, but we're good actually. Happy to be in Moscow.

   - This is your first ever visit to Russia as Erasure. What are your impressions so far?

   Andy: I think, Moscow is very over the top. I think for us to be in such a luxurious place, it's not really normal for us, really. We go to some nice places, but St. Petersburg is amazing, there are a really beautiful buildings and very friendly people as well.

   - What have you heard about Russia before, what were the associations? Did they match with what you have seen here?

   Vince: I didn't expect it to be so kind of almost Mediteranian-European. I think, especially St. Petersbourg where we went out to eat and there just seemed so many young people, walking the streets who looked like they were totally in love. Couples, yeah. Like Paris or something, in the Spring. It was very, very charming.

   - It’s been a month since "Total Pop!" tour has started. How is it going? Are you happy with it?

   Vince: It's so really varied, you know we've played outdoor venues in the UK and we've played some gigs in Scandinavia, and this is the first time we've been to Russia so it's all very different for us.

   - During the show you perform a new song called "Save Me". Tell us more about it. Andy tweeted that song have a gospel choir...

   Andy: It's the only song on the album that has the choir on it. There wasn't a choir on it in the beginning and then we thought it would sound too bare. I thought it was a bit bare, but the choir were done in like one hour in the studio. So, yeah, that's the only choir song.

   Vince: It's the only choir song, we wrote that song quite a while ago, it was probably a year ago, but it's changed drastically from the original demo, and that's the influence of Frankmusik.

   - You’ve just announced your brand new album "Tomorrow’s World". Tell us more about it. The first single is not "Save Me" but another song - what is it sounds like?

   Andy: I think it sounds quite fantastic. [laughs] It does! The first song is called "Tender", well, I don't know if it's called that though... It's called...

   Vince: You came up with the title. The one in brackets.

   Andy: It's called "When I Start To (Break It All Down)", I think. That's a bit of a mouthful there, isn't it?

   Vince: That particular track to me sounds like a little bit like Scissor Sisters? No? Like Tears For Fears? No? Don't shout! [laughs] It wasn't Tears For Fears, was it? Oh, it was! Yeah, sounds a bit like Tears For Fears. But the album is very intense, it's very full on.

   Andy: And it's got a lovely cover.

   - During the work on the album what was Frankmusik’s contribution?

   Vince: Just making everybody really frustrated. No, no, I'm kidding. [laughs] His approach to recording was very different from ours. We would probably record more minimally, usually. But his idea of production is full on, so the sound of this album is very very different from anything else that we've ever recorded before. Do you remember the vocals and stuff?

   Andy: He's completely mad. He's like a boffin as well. And the vocals were recorded with so much compression on them that I had to shout to get even through to the microphone. [laughs]

   - Did you like working with Frankmusik? Did he like working with you?

   Vince: I didn't see him very much. Didn't see much of him, 'cause a lot of the stuff was done over the internet. But he's a good bloke. Well, I think for him, he's looking to expand his whole repertoir. He's interested in being an artist, interested in remixing. So, for him it's a new experience.

   Andy: Being an actor as well, he has a trailer for his album on Youtube which is all comedy sketches with him in them and he's brilliant.

   Vince: Really?

   Andy: Yeah.

   - You’ve been on Mute Records for a very long time. Do you like to make business with them?

   Vince: It's been very good for us, I mean, the fact that we've been with them for so long and that they still have faith in us and also we still have faith in the guy that runs the record company, Daniel Miller, and I think we're very fortunate because had we been signed to a major label, then I don't think that we'd been able to have records. So, it's been very good for us.

   - Last year Mute became indie again. Will it open some new perspectives for Erasure?

   Vince: I think it's great. Moving to EMI was a bad mistake, Daniel missed it as well. Everything changed and suddenly, instead of just being answerable to Daniel, you're answerable to the whole of the EMI institution, and now of course EMI is falling apart anyway, so...

   - What do you think about these days music industry? In what direction electronic music will be moving?

   Vince: I think obviously everything is now geared towards the internet. No one's really come up with a very good business model for selling music anymore, but as far as distributing music is concerned I think electronic music is perfect for that, for that system. I don't really know how it'll all go, it's very exciting actually, it's very interesting times.

   - What music do you listen to these days? What current artists do you like?

   Andy: Currently, I do really like Rihanna and Beyonce. And some J Lo, but not so much. And Ladytron. That's about it, really.

   - Vince, during the last couple of years you did many remixes for various artists, most of them have a more dark, moody sound. Is this your new direction?

   Vince: I don't know, I just kind of got into that whole techno thing, I just like that style of sound and, you know, it's not like this is the way I'll be forever, but it was just like another view of the world of the music, which I discovered late in life. I really love doing it, it intrigues me.

   - What artists would you like to do a remix for?

   Vince: I would like to do a remix for Robyn, that would be cool!

   - Andy, last year you've released a fantastic solo album, I personally like it a lot! Do you have some more solo plans?

   Andy: Not at the moment, but maybe in three or five years...

   - Andy, in June you tried yourself as an opera singer in "Popstar To Opera Star". What are your impressions? Don’t you think about opera career?

   Andy: I shoot myself in the foot, 'cause I was taking it all too seriously, and, as Vince said "it's a TV show", and we were all working so hard in Erasure and doing the show, that I was completely worn out, so my brain wasn't working and I couldn't sing the songs so, it kind of went wrong and I think I took on more than I could bargain for, that anyone could.

   - Vince, you’ve recorded an album with your former Depeche Mode colleague Martin Gore. Tell us more about it - what is it sounds like? When it will be released?

   Vince: What happened was, when I start getting interested in this whole techno thing, I thought I'll try and do some tracks on my own and then I thought that it would be nice to colaborate with somebody on it, and I knew that Martin was, technically, adept. He was working with the same kind of stuff that I was working on, so we were working on the same level, so I just emailed him and said: "Do you wanna make a record?" and he said: "Ok". So, I would start a track, send him some sounds, ideas, he would send some stuff back and just went back and forth that way and we developed these tracks.

   - So, what about the release date?

   Vince: I don't know. It's all gonna be after the whole of the Erasure album is done.

   - Your new tour "Tomorrow’s World" will start at the beginning of Autumn. What can we expect? Dancers, stage set, costumes? Maybe dresses?

   Andy: We don't know yet really, it's gonna be quite futuristic-gothic?

   Vince: We're trying to reflect the title of the record as well, in the costumes and in the stage set. But to be honest, it's just right in the middle of being designed now, so there's no definitive plans as of yet.

   Andy: I don't know whether to get a gold suit or not, you know, a jacket, so it's a gold one and the gold trousers.

   Vince: Well, what have you got at the moment, silver?

   Andy: No, red and black.

   Vince: Don't you have a silver suit as well?

   Andy: Yeah, just plain though not with like sequins, oh right, I want all sequins...

   - Many of your fans are dying to hear on the shows songs from your recent albums: "Cowboy", "Loveboat", "Other People's Songs", "Nightbird" and "Light At The End Of The World", but you rarely perform them. Why so?

   Vince: Well, in this instance, we have to make a choice, we have to choose - try and get a balance between stuff that people are very familiar with and stuff that's not been played very often, so it's refreshing for us. So, for this particular set we've taken a couple of b-sides, from very early on, some very early tracks, just to kind of keep it interesting. You can't please people all the time, I get tweets every day, requests, saying "oh, can you, please, include this or include this", but you can't do everything. You're also trying to make the set cohesive so that it, kind of everything works together and I think, we've succeeded for this leg. For the second leg it will be different again, 'cause obviously we'll be including tracks from the new record. I would love to please everybody, but you can't.

   - I recently requested to play "Run To The Sun"...

   Andy: That's a hard one - that one, yeah, it's really hard.

   - Four years ago I asked you several questions, I want to ask them again now and compare the answers, ok? Continue the phrases:

   a) if I’d have a spare ticket to heaven, I’d give it to...

   Vince: I would give it to my son Oscar.

   Andy: Mmm... I don't know...

   Vince: What about your budgie or your cat? Or to our tour manager?

   Andy: Yeah, I'd give it to Andy. [laughs]

   b) you can always find in my refridgerator...

   Vince: Beer.

   Andy: Hummus.

   c) my partner is perfect because...

   Vince: Because she has good taste in men.

   Andy: Because our spirits are connected.

   - Four years ago Andy said: "He's a dark brooding mean hunk", and Vince said: "She has big tits"!

   Andy: She still does, don't she Vince? They're even bigger now! [laughs]

   - After all these years in the music industry, after more than a dozen of albums, hundreds of shows all over the world - do you have any unrealised wishes or ambitions related to tour job?

   Vince: It's interesting coming to Russia for the first time 'cause you realise that there are places that we actually haven't been to ever. It's been really great and it does kind of make me curious about the places that we haven't played, like there's China, there's India, there's all those kind of places, I think that would be an interesting ambition.

   Andy: I think, it would be nice to have an Erasure musical, but I think, somebody else should do it, like not us, so we don't have to do any work at all, 'cause there's a hell of a lot of work, you know, thinking of the idea and everything.

   - Vince, Andy, what is the question you always wanted to answer that you never been asked?

   Vince: There isn't one, no.

   - Say something to your Russian fans. Maybe some greetings from Erasure?

   Vince: Hello to everybody that's out there and thanks for your continued support. We are very excited about playing in Moscow tomorrow, we had a great time in St. Petersburg and met some really nice people. And, you know, although it's part of Europe, it's kind of exotic for us, so we're looking forward to the show.

   Andy: Yeah, you can't believe and we're very surprised at the reception that we've had from the Russian people.

   - Last question to Vince - HOW IS THE CAT?

   Vince: The cat is fine, the cat actually moved to New York...

   Andy: Oh, god!

   Vince: But it made no difference to him, they let them out the first time, he went out, zoomed out, just like city cat straight away. Middle of the night it started thundering, next thing you hear is tap-tap-tap - cat comes back in. The cat is fine - he's huge, he's huge 'cause I think he's actually a thyroid cloud. He's a wild cat, he's got some wild cat in him, so he's massive, he's like a labrador. But he's good, though.

   - Thank you, good luck for the show and have a very nice time in Moscow and Kyiv.

   Vince: It's terrific, thank you!

   Erasure.ru express its gratitude to Ksenia Shapovalova ("Melnitsa") and Andy Whittle for their assistance in the organizing of this interview.

Twilight 0.2 (photos: Twilight 0.2, Truckdriver, Deirdre O'Callaghan)

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